Will Edgar Martinez head to Hall of Fame?

He could join Niehaus in Cooperstown

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, March 24, 2008

The former Mariners designated hitter brought the city some of its most cherished sports memories, including the 1995 double that might have saved baseball in Seattle. The Mariners waived the waiting period so they could induct him into the team hall of fame after his 2004 retirement. The city named a street after him.

Tim Raetzloff of Edmonds appreciates Martinez as much as any Mariners fan, but it wasn't until he saw a graphic on ESPN in 1999 comparing the DH's numbers to some baseball legends that Raetzloff realized how important Martinez was in the bigger picture.

"If he really is in that kind of elite company," Raetzloff thought, "he really ought to be in the Hall of Fame. And somebody should be pushing it."

Raetzloff began studying historical statistics and encouraging local media to speak out in support of Martinez's worthiness. He established a Web site (abarim.com/edgar.htm) with charts and graphs and pro-Edgar propaganda.

"With his accomplishments, he's in the company of a lot of players in the Hall of Fame," Raetzloff said.

The question is, will Martinez literally end up in their company, with a bronze plaque in Cooperstown? Will he join Mariners voice Dave Niehaus, who will be inducted into the broadcasters' wing of the Hall of Fame this summer? Late next year, Martinez's name will appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, as he becomes eligible for the class of 2010.

Martinez said during a recent visit to the Mariners' spring training camp that he's not thinking about it much.

"It's a great honor to even be considered for the Hall of Fame," he said. "On a day-to-day basis I'm concentrating on other things, but when people mention and talk about it, that's when I give it a little more thought. But it's not something that I really think about a lot."

For a player to be elected, he must be selected by 75 percent of Hall voters, writers who have been in the Baseball Writers' Association of America at least 10 years. As long as a player is picked on at least 5 percent of ballots each year, his name remains on the ballot until 20 years after he retired. After that time runs out, a player can be selected by the Veterans Committee.

Martinez figures to be an interesting case for voters.

"I envision one of these long, drawn-out debates on Edgar Martinez among Hall voters," said Boston Globe national baseball writer Nick Cafardo, a Hall of Fame voter. "Probably similar to what Jim Rice has gone through.

"I don't think he's a player who more than 70 percent of the voters are going to look at and say, 'Oh yeah, first-ballot Hall of Famer.' I think he'll be someone whose vote total gradually rises as voters begin to place him in proper context with his peers."

In attempting to find that context, a compelling case for Martinez's inclusion emerges.

His career OPS (combined on-base and slugging percentages, considered by many the best single number to rate players offensively), is .933.

Nineteen Hall-eligible retired players, batting from either side, are ahead of Martinez on the career OPS list, and 16 of them are in the Hall. The only exceptions are McGwire and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, excluded only because of their respective cheating scandals, and Lefty O'Doul.

Martinez is one of 15 players to finish his career with a batting average above .300, an on-base percentage above .400 and a slugging percentage above .500. All the others are in the Hall except Shoeless Joe.

Martinez finished eight seasons above the .300/.400/.500 water mark, including seven in a row. Only 10 players (nine Hall of Famers and the still technically active Barry Bonds) have done that in more seasons, and three in more consecutive seasons (Lou Gehrig 12, Babe Ruth and Stan Musial 8).

Further narrow the list of career .300/.400/.500 players to those who have 300 homers, 1,200 walks and 500 doubles, and you're left with six men: Ruth, Gehrig, Musial, Ted Williams, Hornsby and Martinez. Pretty good company.

Martinez's on-base percentage of .418 is better than all but 12 players in the Hall of Fame.

Not all his impressive stats are based on averages. Despite his relatively short major league career, he's still 33rd in doubles and 34th in walks among retired players.

But Martinez's candidacy will have its share of negatives to overcome, notably the late start to his major league career and the position he played for most of that career.

Martinez batted .329 at Triple-A in 1987, then .372 in a September callup, but it wasn't enough to make him a major leaguer. The next year he batted .363 at Triple-A and still didn't get called up until September. Not until 1990, when he was 27, did Martinez become a full-time starter. He then missed most of the 1993 and 1994 seasons because of injuries.

So despite playing into his 40s, he didn't finish even close to the supposed "magic numbers" for Hall inclusion: 3,000 hits (Martinez finished with 2,247) and 500 homers (309). In part because he played for mostly lousy Mariners teams, he is only 97th among retired players in RBIs (1,261).

Whether voters will embrace designated hitters for Hall inclusion remains to be seen. Some players have been elected who spent significant time at DH, but Martinez will be the first player to merit serious consideration who spent the vast majority of his time at the position.

Some of the bias against designated hitters comes from National League partisans and others who don't believe the DH belongs in the game. Playing outstanding defense is no requirement for the Hall of Fame -- plenty of subpar fielders with big offensive numbers have been elected -- but there's also the perception that a DH has an unfair advantage because he concentrates only on hitting while avoiding the physical wear and tear and injury risk associated with decades playing in the field.

But designated hitter was part of the American League lineup during the years Martinez played, and it was the position where the Mariners needed him. He was a serviceable third baseman early in his career, and there's no reason to believe he couldn't have been a serviceable first baseman late in his career had he been with an NL team.

"Being primarily a DH doesn't help him, but others with DH ties, such as Paul Molitor, made it to Cooperstown," said Hall voter Tom Haudricort of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "At this point, all I'm prepared to say is I'd consider him. He might turn out to be one of those players who gets to the doorstep but not in the door."

"When I think of Edgar Martinez the words Hall of Famer don't jump off the tongue, but I've voted for players like this before, sometimes seven or eight years into their eligibility," the Globe's Cafardo said. "Martinez might be one of those."

Other voters, including Mel Antonen of USA Today, say Martinez will have their unequivocal support.

"I will vote for Edgar in a heartbeat," Antonen said. "He had an incredible career and all the intangibles. He defined a franchise. (He) was the best DH in the game, and the Hall of Fame was made for players like Edgar."

Most Northwest fans agree. Do 70 percent of Hall of Fame voters? We'll find out in 2010.